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Ex-Texas officer indicted on murder charge in teen's death

FILE - In this May 6, 2017, file photo, mourners hold the commemorative program as they emerge from the funeral service for 15-year-old, Jordan Edwards, at Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas. A white former Texas police officer has been indicted on a murder charge in the April shooting death of Edward's, who was leaving a party, prosecutors said Monday, July 17, 2017. Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson announced that a grand jury indicted former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver in the death of the 15-year-old. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News via AP, File)

DALLAS – A white former police officer has been indicted on a murder charge in the April shooting death of a black teenager who was a passenger in a car that was leaving a party in suburban Dallas, prosecutors said Monday.

The grand jury’s indictment of Roy Oliver also charges him with four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public official related to the other four teens who were in the car with 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, said Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson.

Oliver, 37, was fired from the Balch Springs Police Department in May for violating department policies. Body camera footage of the incident showed Oliver shooting his rifle into a car that was moving away from him and another officer.

Edwards, his two brothers and two other teens were leaving the party where police had arrived to investigate an underage drinking complaint. Officers heard unrelated gunshots and spotted the vehicle leaving.

Shots from Oliver’s rifle pierced the front passenger window, hitting Edwards in the head as he sat in the front seat.

An attorney for the teen’s family, Lee Merritt, said Oliver getting indicted is “one step on the road to justice.”

“We’re looking forward to a conviction and proper sentencing,” the lawyer said. He added that anything less than serious jail time wouldn’t be adequate.

Johnson promised during a news conference to thoroughly prosecute the case. With Edwards’ parents at her side, the district attorney touted the speed with which Oliver was charged and arrested.

“This is the very first time we have issued an arrest warrant for a police officer before the case was presented to the grand jury,” she said. “As we move forward, my office continues to be committed to seeking justice for Jordan and his family.”

Charmaine Edwards said the world lost “so much” with the death of her stepson, who was a high school freshman at the time.

“A great kid, a great football player, straight-A student … somebody who was going to go somewhere,” she said.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department charged Oliver with murder in May, less than a week after the shooting in Balch Springs, a suburb about 15 miles (24 kilometres) east of downtown Dallas. Oliver, who had been with the department for nearly six years, turned himself in and posted bond.

Last month, Oliver was indicted on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public servant in an unrelated incident, where he is accused of displaying a gun during a traffic accident. Oliver was off duty in Dallas when another vehicle rear-ended his and, according to a police report, he pulled his service weapon and kept it pointed at the ground.

A Dallas officer who responded to the incident, which happened two weeks before Oliver shot Edwards, didn’t file charges. Prosecutors later sought charges, though, saying the Dallas incident “showed a pattern of behaviour.”

Attorney Jasmine Crockett, who also represents the Edwards family, said facing charges in two separate incidents will be “too much to overcome” for Oliver.

“There’s no question now in my mind of whether or not he is going to get locked up,” Crockett said.

She said it also was significant that the indictment included aggravated assault charges related to the other teens in the car. She said officers don’t often get charged for endangering others during an incident.

Oliver’s is the second indictment of a police officer for a fatal shooting in Dallas County in less than a month after almost 43 years without an indictment of an officer. Former Dallas officer Christopher Hess was indicted on an aggravated assault charge for shooting into a moving car more than a dozen times in January, striking and killing 21-year-old Genevive Dawes.